Up until last season, the Detroit Pistons had never had the 5th pick in the NBA Draft, but after falling in the Draft Lottery two nights ago, it’s going to happen again this year.
The 5th slot in the NBA Draft has been a fairly strong one since the lottery first started in 1985 and has yielded surprisingly few busts over that span.
Yes, there are guys like Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Jonathan Bender, Alex Len and Mario Hezonja, but far more often the 5th pick has yielded solid but not spectacular players like Jonas Valanciunas, Ricky Rubio, Mike Miller and Juwan Howard.